Green Zone League Articles

As you may recall, last year I put together a list of what I called the Most Productive Cornerbacks, based on their statistical output. We are getting close to the midway point for 2015 and I thought I’d revisit the topic and rank the Most Productive CBs so far this season.

Here is what I used in my formula: Interceptions, deflections and catches allowed. I decided not to use tackles, sacks etc because, one, they aren't the CBs main duties, and two, they seem more the result of scheme and other players on the field (for example, a CB may have a lot of tackles, but it could be because the front seven are very bad).

To easily get the raw numbers below, I simply multiplied INTs x 2, added that number to the total deflections (reasoning an INT was twice as good as a deflection). Then I divided the total catches allowed by the INT/deflection number.

So for example, if someone has 5 INTs, 20 deflections and 30 catches allowed, I added 10 (5 INTs x 2) + 20 and divided 30 by 30, coming up with a score of 1.00. The lower the score the better.

I set a couple general parameters in terms of which CBs qualified. I looked at players with at least 1 interception and at least 10 pass deflections or 10 catches allowed, as well any player with no interceptions but at least 15 deflections or CTHA. In total, I ranked 49 CBs.

Some interesting notes on the rankings: The league leader thus far, Terrell Thomas barely qualified. He had only 11 CTHA and 9 deflections. Which makes his 3 picks pretty remarkable so far. You have to be impressed with the Texans’ duo of Nigel Malone and DeAngelo Smith, who are ranked #2 and #4 respectively. Their play hasn’t resulted in a lot of wins, but considering they went 4-12 last year, they’ve made an impact. Rookie Patriot CB Braylon Bender has been light’s out! How impressive is it that he’s in the Top 10 as a first year player. Of the other rookies that qualified (Keith Schultz, Travis Murphy, Jamar Taylor, Cobrani Rogers, and David Amerson), only Schultz (1.417) and Murphy (1.600) have decent scores.

Last year’s best CB Dominique Cromartie, didn’t qualify, by one deflection. If he had qualified, he’d have the highest score of any player. As it’s still relatively early in the season, obviously there are some good CBs who haven’t produced enough yet to qualify.

The worst CB who qualified? Rookie CB David Amerson. With 23 CTHA and only 5 deflections, his score of 4.600 is the worst in the league so far. Interestingly, of the 10 worst scores in the league, 8 are former first rounders (Amerson, Alan Morris, Chimdi Chekwa, DeMarcus Milliner, Kareem Jackson, Mike Jenkins, Cobrani Rogers, Patrick Peterson).